Nearly two and a half years after Mayor of London Boris Johnson ordered Transport for London (TfL) to axe funding for the Metropolitan Police’s Commercial Vehicle Education Unit, forcing it to close, he and TfL have announced today that they have made additional funding available to the police unit that replaced it.

The press release, which also provides an update on the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) and training given to lorry drivers working on the Crossrail project, makes no mention of that October 2009 decision.

However, with cycle safety high on the agenda ahead of May’s London mayoral elections – this evening, hundreds of cyclists will participate in a flashride in Westminster – Mr Johnson’s opponents are likely to seize upon today’s announcement as an admission that he got it wrong.

After the CVEU was disbanded following that cut in funding, the Metropolitan Police reconstituted it as the Commercial Vehicle Unit, operating out of Alperton in North West London. However, it has lacked the resources and the manpower that the CVEU previously enjoyed.

Now, however, TfL has confirmed that since December it has been funding an additional six officers at what it terms the Commercial Vehicle Task Force – no such body is mentioned on the Metropolitan Police’s own website, which instead refers to the Commercial Vehicle Unit – while money has also been provided for two extra officers in the Road Crime Intelligence Unit.

At the time the funding to the CVEU was discontinued, Mr Johnson said that he believed the voluntary Freight Operators’ Recognition Scheme, recently renamed the Fleet Operator Recognition scheme (FORS) would provide an adequate safeguard to protect vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.

However, many see the FORS as inherently flawed because, as a voluntary scheme, its very nature means that it is likely to attract those operators that already place a heavy emphasis on health and safety and adhering to applicable regulations, but not those best described as ‘fly-by-night’ operators that are less concerned with adhering to the law.

Indeed, in May 2010, Charlie Lloyd of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), himself a former lorry driver, pointed out: “It's for these people that the police need expert powers to pursue them until they comply with the law."

In fact, figures released by TfL today that it claims demonstrate the success of take-up of FORS show that operators of the majority of the commercial vehicles on London’s roads – more than two in every three vans and lorries regularly operating in the city – are not signed up to the scheme.

According to TfL, 1,020 operators responsible for 98,380 vehicles – equivalent, it says, to 28.2 per cent of London’s regular freight – have signed up to the FORS; by coincidence, between 2005 and its disbandment in 2009, the CVEU discovered that 70 per cent of the vehicles it checked were defective.

Those figures, which together add up to nearly 100 per cent, suggest that exactly as Lloyd warned – and according to LCC, it was a view also supported by the haulage industry and drivers’ unions – the FORS is missing out on the irresponsible firms that the CVEU previously targeted.

It’s true that TfL is providing funding for lorry drivers to undergo cycle awareness training, and that more businesses are signing up to the FORS – indeed, part of today’s announcement concerns news that eight firms have become the first to reach the scheme’s gold standard – but as it currently stands, concerns will quite rightly remain that it is being ignored by those operators that most need policing.

In that regard, at least, the additional funding provided by TfL to the Metropolitan Police should help. The Road Crime Intelligence Unit, which has gained two officers thanks to TfL funding, works alongside agencies including the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and Department for Transport to collate information and help catch dangerous or unlicensed operators in the capital.

The duties of the Commercial Vehicle Unit, meanwhile, include enforcing the law and providing training to operators of lorries, vans and other commercial vehicles throughout London, including investigating drivers involved in collisions that have resulted in death of or injury to cyclists.

Quoted in today’s press release – you can read the full text here – Mr Johnson said: “I am determined to improve road safety and demanding the highest standards from freight companies is a key part of this.

“Some companies are leading the way in showing what can be achieved, but this needs to be reflected across the industry,” he added.

“To play our part, we are providing training for thousands of lorry and truck drivers and investing in more police officers to clamp down on shoddy, illegal drivers,” Mr Johnson concluded.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party's candidate in the forthcoming mayoral election, told road.cc: "I welcome the Mayor's u-turn on funding for extra police to deal with road crime, which follows two years of uncertainty and cuts to the Traffic Police. The new Commissioner has brought more focus to the Met's work on illegal vehicles and I hope this leads to a reversal of the cuts to Met Police traffic officers.

She added: "Good progress is being made on signing companies up to the freight operators' scheme and it's a relief that the current Mayor has continued this initiative which started under the previous administration. The problem remains trying to reach the many small operators and haulage firms who are both tucked away and also have the worst safety record."

Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.

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A V Lowe[611 posts]5 years ago

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You only need to review the reports of the deaths of cyclists to see how many involve drivers and operators who should have had their licences revoked by the Traffic Commissioner, and been taken off the road.

Go round London currently, especially just around 07.30-08.00 and see just how many sites are under development, and how many have a small batallion of tipper trucks waiting (and often blocking cycles routes, or driven on the footway - where's the £30 FPN that gets handed out so readily to cyclists?) The sheer number of trucks is needed because they cannot get out to tip and back to keep the excavators working with an empty truck to fill up, and add a substantial element to the traffic congestion in the City/E London.

There could be a solution in many places. 2 disused tunnels and a rail route out from Kings Cross, 2 disued stations with up to 6 platforms, at Moorgate and Barbican, and other locations which could have rail trains to take 1000-2000 tons out at a time. Too costly to deliver for individual sites, but for a TfL/DfT/Network Rail delivery a possibility to both ship out excavated material, and ship in bulk material like cemant and aggregate (there is a rail-connected concrete batching plant at Maiden Lane by Kings Cross, placing the supply source much closer to the sites requiring concrete, and thus reducing vehicle miles in Central London)

I have seen a number of cyclists being nicked in the City of London. I have never seen a skip lorry being pulled over despite witnessing light jumping, dangerous driving, speeding and some rather nasty intimidation of more vunerable road users. The City of London Police obviously has the resources , perphaps they should change their focus?

Training? Do me a favour. Go and tell a skip lorry driver from the Isle of Dogs he needs training. Just enforce the law.